MISS MARY
Argentina, 1986, 100 minutes, Colour.
Julie Christie.
Directed by Maria Louisa Bemberg.
Miss Mary is Julie Christie as a prim English/Irish governess working for a wealthy Argentinian family, 1938-41. The portrait of the family, in a period of fascism, by writer-director, Maria Louisa Bemberg, is unflattering. They are too wealthy, too pampered and self-indulgent, eccentric with a touch of madness. Miss Mary makes a contrast in manners and morals but falls foul of their hypocritical standards. The perspective of the film is 1945 as the Peron era begins. It is also a perspective of the 1980s with Argentinian history under the generals and a more liberal government in the mid-'80s.
1. An Argentinian film and perspective? For local audiences? World audiences? A memoir of the '30s and '40s? Universal audiences?
2. Maria Louisa Bemberg and her perspective, story, writing and direction? A feminine/feminist perspective? The contribution of Julie Christie?
3. The period: the affluent families of the '30s, fascist government, families and their luxurious country estates, modelling them on European homes, wealth and style, an enclosed world? The comment on Argentinian society? The cont
rast with Europe and World War Two? The inevitability of changes? The '40s and the end of the war? The musical background, the American songs and dances? The use of the Satie piano score?
4. The title and the focus on Miss Mary, Julie Christie’s presence, English, Irish, the governess and her status, standards and morals, the Irish Catholic for the Catholic Argentinians? her wanting security in Argentinian society?
5. The 1945 setting: the regimes, fascism, their defeat, the emergence of Peron and what this would mean, change? The film as a memoir?
6. Miss Mary and her arrival: prim, her expectations, British background, Catholic background, her behaviour, a woman in this society, her education, educational standards, formality, relationships? her introduction to the home?
Her relationship with the parents, antagonism with the children? Discipline, lessons? General education and style? her insistence on standards? Her relationship with Johnny - and his devotion and infatuation? Caroline and Teresa and their antagonism, change of attitude? Alfredo and his demands? Mecha and her withdrawal? The party and Miss Mary's reaction to the relations, moral standards? Mecha and her running amok with the gun? Her concern about Johnny, care of him, his 15th birthday, his going to the brothel, his grief and coming to Miss Mary, her tenderness, the night with him? Her motives, breaking down her standards? Her dismissal?
7. 1945 and the wedding, her preparation, going? Seeing Johnny? The arranged marriage? His telling the family story? His remembering the tenderness - and Miss Mary's seemingly indifferent reaction? Her leaving this world and returning to Britain?
8. The family and its wealth, isolated, eccentric., mad? Alfredo and his work, wealth, expectations, demands on his wife, elegant living style? Enjoying the children? Mecha and her withdrawal, the dark glasses, playing the piano, her sex preoccupation and concern for her daughters, her reaction to her husband seducing Berla? The gun and her going amok? Withdrawing? The verve of the daughters, their mischief, American influences, dance, songs. games, torments?
Teresa and sex, the yacht, caught, a marriage of honour? Carolina and her vivacity, psychological decline, psychiatrists' care?
9. Johnny and his place in the family, pleasant, his infatuation, the 15th birthday, his father's standards in taking him to the brothel, the encounter with the prostitute, his reaction, going to Miss Mary, tenderness with her? On the yacht, the contrast with his sisters? The wedding - and his future?
10. The gallery of family characters and servants? Berla, the party, the seduction? Ernesto and his marrying her?
11. Argentina, nationalism, England and its contact with Argentina and its history (and the '80s)? The lack of cultural identity, the influence of the United States? People trapped in their lifestyles, codes? Repression?
